Doctors and faith

BY JIM RITTER Health Reporter jritter@suntimes.com

A majority of American doctors believe God or another supernatural being intervenes in patients’ health, a study has found.

And nearly two in five doctors believe religion and spirituality can help prevent bad outcomes such as heart attacks, infections and even death, according to the University of Chicago nationwide survey of 2,000 physicians. Read more…

New research commissioned by the NIHR Health Technology Assessment (HTA) programme is looking into whether the vitamin folate can help in the treatment of depression. One in five people experience depression during their lives and only half of these people respond to antidepressant treatment.

Folate, a vitamin found in foods such as green vegetables, helps to produce chemicals that regulate brain functions, including mood, sleep and appetite. Read more…

PATIENTS are being prescribed self-help books by GPs to complement more traditional treatments, thanks to an innovative new scheme in Wiltshire.

Designed to help patients cope with common psychological and emotional difficulties such as anxiety, depression and stress, it enables health professionals to prescribe highly recommended self-help books. Read more…

There’s no quick fix for depression. Even if you are under medical care and taking antidepressant medication, improvement takes time.

There’s no quick fix for depression. Even if you are under medical care and taking antidepressant medication, improvement takes time.

The December issue of Mayo Clinic Women’s HealthSource offers five self-care strategies that can help you feel better and reduce the risk of recurrence. Read more…

The Scotsman
Sept 6, 2006
STUART NICOLSON

SELF-HELP books are being made available on prescription in an attempt to tackle depression, eating disorders and other mental-health issues.

The scheme allows patients to borrow the books anonymously from local libraries for up to six weeks. The initiative has been introduced in Fife and Glasgow, and if successful it is likely to be extended to other health authorities across Scotland.

Depression is the most common condition recorded by family doctors in Scotland.

Statistics show that more than 300,000 Scots visit their doctor each year because of stress or depression. Read more…

Dr Simon Whitesman
MBChB

South African Journal of Natural Medicine
August 2006

Over the last 40 years meditation has been increasingly utilised in the context of Western health care to generate relaxation, enhanced awareness of mind-body phenomena and insight into the nature of the mind and its relation to the body.

While the use of meditative disciplines is deeply integrated into the culture and psyche of the East, it is only recently that this profound and ancient practice has gained a foothold in the West, initially on the fringes of society, and currently as an accepted self-help tool in both psychology and medicine. Much of this diffusion has occurred through the investigation of meditative practices by medical and behavioural scientists, and the consequent recognition that enormous therapeutic benefit may be derived through its regular utilisation. Read more…

The Press (York)
Jan 19 2007

AN EXPERT in mental health at the University of York has called for a radical reform of psychological therapies across the country.

Professor David Richards, of the university’s Department of Health Sciences, said despite being “both effective and highly valued” by patients, no more than one per cent of people with anxiety or depression receive such therapy.

But, in a seminar to the Dr Foster Ethics Committee, he argued traditional treatments were not the answer. Read more…

Acupuncture can work, and it’s not just wishful thinking

U.S. News & World Report Stacey Schultz
12-18-2000

There is nothing New Age about the Lincoln Hospital Recovery Center in New York’s South Bronx. Broken glass glitters outside the main entrance, where drug-addicted men and women wait in line for the clinic to open at 7:30 a.m. Inside, the decor is institutional drab. Yet the treatment of choice might seem more at home among the hot tubs of Marin County: a set of small acupuncture needles in each ear. Psychiatrist Michael Smith, who runs the clinic, says acupuncture helps addicts overcome their cravings. “It has a relaxing effect,” he says. “The person feels comfortable, more able to listen and cope.” Read more…

‘Beautiful’-but Not Rare-Recovery
John Nash’s Genius Is Extraordinary. Recovering From Schizophrenia Is Anything But.

By Sandra G. Boodman
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, February 12, 2002; Page HE01

The end of “A Beautiful Mind,” the Oscar-nominated movie based loosely on the life of Nobel Prize winner John Forbes Nash Jr., depicts the Princeton mathematician’s emergence from the stranglehold of paranoid schizophrenia, the most feared and disabling of mental illnesses. Moviegoers who have watched the cinematic metamorphosis of actor Russell Crowe - from the disheveled genius who furiously covers his office walls with delusional scribblings to the silver-haired academic perfectly at home in the rarefied company of fellow laureates in Stockholm - might assume that Nash’s recovery from three decades of psychosis is unique. Read more…

by Ronald Bassman, Ph.D.

Psychologist Ronald Bassman, once diagnosed and treated for schizophrennia, brings new hope to patients and families.

Psychology Today
Feb 2001

The seclusion room was empty except for a mattress covered in black rubber on the concrete floor. They lowered me onto the mattress and turned me on my side. I fought their grip on my ankles and wrists, but they were too strong and experienced. I quit struggling and stared at the wire-encased ceiling light. I couldn’t see the nurse when she came in aid, “Get him ready.” They quickly pulled my pants and underwear down to my knees. I winced at the violent thrust of the needle. I tried to prepare myself to fight the onslaught of the thought-dulling, body-numbing Thorazine. Read more…